


Backgammon

by rmc28



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Implied Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 13:49:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rmc28/pseuds/rmc28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yinsen says "I'm from a small town called Gulmira".  But that's not the first backgammon game, nor is it the last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Backgammon

**Author's Note:**

> For my brother J, who asked where the backgammon set came from.

The dice rattle onto the board and Stark says "You still haven't told me where you're from".

Yinsen says "I'm from a small town called Gulmira". But that's not the first backgammon game, nor is it the last.

****

Stark is dragged back from the first round of waterboarding. He sits on the bed where they shoved him, staring at nothing, shivering. Yinsen thinks it is not just with the cave's chill. 

He opens up his backgammon board and sets it on the table between them. He doesn't speak or touch Stark, just places the dice next to the hand that isn't holding the car battery, sits back and waits. He has had plenty of practice at waiting.

Eventually, Stark moves. Turns his head to look at the dice by his hand, glances up to take in the board, and Yinsen waiting. Stark shrugs, catches Yinsen's eye, flashes a ghost of a grin that doesn't meet his eyes. "Might as well," he says, and begins play. 

Two emotions take Yinsen by surprise. The first is _liking_ ; as in Bern he is unexpectedly charmed by this American arms dealer and creator. Then he only defied drunkenness. Now he defies shooting, chest surgery, and torture. 

The second feeling takes Yinsen a moment longer to identify: _hope_. He doesn't indulge it and it passes soon enough. 

They get through two games before Stark is dragged away again.

****

They play a few more times, between Stark's absences. Yinsen knows the game is no real challenge for Stark, but it gives him something to do with his hands and eyes, passes the time, forces him to interact with Yinsen rather than retreat entirely into pain, despair and isolation. Yinsen has run out of hope but not out of stubbornness, and he will keep Stark alive if he can.

****

They stand in bright sunshine outside the cave system, Stark's weapons piled high all around, and Stark's eyes full of despair. "And when you're done, he will set you free," translates Yinsen.

"No he won't," says Stark and Yinsen cannot help but agree.

Back in their cave, he pushes Stark hard, trying to rouse some anger, anything to drive out the flat despair. When the breakthrough comes, it comes suddenly and completely, Stark transformed with animation and purpose. Yinsen is pretty certain Stark is still defiant, and hope whispers up in him again. This time Yinsen allows himself a little indulgence.

****

After Stark has built the miniature arc reactor, after Yinsen has installed it in place of the car battery, after Stark has shown him drawings for a metal suit, they fall into something of a routine. Dismantling and repurposing missiles for a few hours, break for food, then back to the work. Yinsen suspects that without his insistence, Stark wouldn't bother with breaks, or eating. He starts bringing the backgammon board out after meals, to keep Stark sitting and resting a bit longer. 

"Something I don't understand," says Stark, one evening. "Everything else in this cave is either stone-age or high-tech. Mostly my tech. But this," poking the board, "this wooden game, this doesn't fit. Where did it come from?"

"It's mine," replies Yinsen. "It was in my luggage, when they kidnapped me. I always take it with me to conferences."

"Seems a bit ... bulky," says Stark, one eyebrow raised.

"It's one of the oldest games in the world," replies Yinsen mildly. "They found a set in Iran about 5000 years old. Lots of people know how to play it, and the rules are easy to explain if they don't. It's a good way to break the ice, pass the time with new people, maybe even make friends."

Stark nods, conceding the point. It broke through Stark's frozen shivering after all, thinks Yinsen, and through his own frozen hopelessness. Hope has taken up residence inside him now. They will get out, and they will stop the Ten Rings. Or Stark will anyway.

At the end of that game, they resume work, only to be interrupted when Raza comes in with his entourage and his threats. Yinsen clings to his old stubbornness and his new-found hope, draws strength to tell convincing lies. It works enough to placate Raza that evening, but there is no more time for breaks or backgammon.

****

Yinsen dies giving Stark the time he needs to get the suit out of the cave. "Don't waste your life, Stark."

Tony trudges through the desert away from his crashed suit, grieving and furious in the relentless heat. He lost Yinsen and he doesn't even have the stupid wooden backgammon board to remember him by. Up in smoke with the rest of the cave base, both Yinsen and the game, while he gets to walk away.

****

Iron Man and Captain America are helping with the clean-up of New York after the Chitauri. Sometimes together, more often apart. Mostly they're lifting heavy things under the direction of the real experts. Pepper says it's important for the city's morale to see the Avengers out and helping, and it doesn't hurt SI either. 

Tony suspects she knows it's vital for his morale too. The work gives him a daily connection to the city and the people he helped save, something to cling to when he wakes from nightmares of a drained suit falling through space. He doesn't know what Steve's nightmares are, but he knows through JARVIS that they're less bad on days when the Captain has been out working. The Captain and Iron Man work well together, but Tony hasn't managed to do more than persuade Steve to take up residence in Stark Tower. They barely exchange words when not suited up.

Clearing away rubble from yet another ravaged street, Tony's attention is caught by the display of board games in a store-front. Before he lets himself hesitate, he wanders into the store, visor up, and charms the staff out of their flustered excitement and into delivering the backgammon set to him at Stark Tower. There's nowhere to put it in the suit, but at least he's got in the habit of carrying cash around, and doesn't have to barter another watch. Pepper would be proud. 

That evening, Tony takes the delivered package and asks JARVIS to direct him to Steve. The other man is standing staring blankly out of a Tower window at the battered city. A sketchpad sits unused on a table. Tony sits at the table and unpacks the backgammon board on top of the sketchpad. Steve watches him without comment.

"A wise man once told me," says Tony, "that this is one of the oldest games in the world. A good way to break the ice with new people, maybe even make friends." 

Steve walks over and sits down. "I'd like that," he says, and begins play.


End file.
